


Early Christmas Morning

by bar2d2s



Category: The Flash (Comics)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-12
Updated: 2015-05-12
Packaged: 2018-03-30 05:16:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3924280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bar2d2s/pseuds/bar2d2s
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I know it's May and I'm Jewish. But I'm this far through my blog's fanfiction tag, I'd better just soldier on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Early Christmas Morning

Okay, so Axel wasn’t five anymore, but Christmas morning was still Christmas morning. He and Mark had annoyed Len into letting them keep their plastic Charlie Brown Christmas Special tree, with half the branches missing that they’d decorated with can tabs and beer bottles, and there were a few newspaper-wrapped presents under it.

He woke at nearly 7, the only one who hadn’t drunk himself into a coma the night before. The hideout was dark, and if it hadn’t been for his shoes, Axel’d probably have tripped over a body or a box on his beeline towards the tree. He made it there unscathed, though, and pulled out his mini-flashlight.

Surprisingly, most of the presents were for Len. Actually, it wasn’t that big of a surprise. He’d been drinking harder than usual, since the snow started, and they were all worried about him. Worried enough, it seemed, to all get him a little something.

Axel looked for his own presents for a few minutes, disappointed to find that he only had three. One of them, wrapped neater than the rest, was obviously from Mark, as it felt like a book set. Mark always got him books. He was way too interested in expanding Axel’s mind. Still, he’d gotten the whole Harry Potter series for his birthday that year, that’d been nice. The fourth one, when hollowed, made a good hidey-hole for his special gum. He had to squirrel  _that_  trick away, because of all the prior ‘incidents’. Len’s gift, and he knew it was from Len, because it was just a cardboard box with the word 'Kid’ scrawled on it, was heavy enough to be either a big, clunky laptop, or a new base for his airwalkers. Job stuff. Axel liked getting job stuff, it made him feel like he was actually one of the gang.

His third gift was tiny. It was barely a gift, just a manila envelope that felt like it had paper in it. His name was on it, written in Owen’s scrunched, neatly-messy block print. Grinning to himself, Axel opened the bag he’d been carrying, stuffing four presents under the tree. A really nicely bound copy of Frankenstein he’d bought cheap from the used bookstore downtown for Mark, a bottle of Jameson in a little plaid skirt for Evan (“You’re mixing countries!” “He won’t care, it’s booze.”), a sleek Dell laptop for Len, freshly stolen from Best Buy during the holiday rush, and for Owen…his grin grew ever wider. Owen was getting a book, too, but it would definitely be more fun than Frankenstein, and they’d get to read it together.

Speaking of which, Axel activated his shoes, stopping only to throw the blanket that had fallen off the couch back over Mark, and practically sprinted back to their room. It was cold, he was just in his Batman pajama pants and shoes, and there was a big spoon somewhere in this hideout that needed a little spoon to match.

Owen was almost exactly as he’d left him; flat on his back and spread out like a starfish, their blankets tangled around one leg. Axel snorted, kicking off his shoes and crawling into bed. He carefully rested his head on one of Owen’s arms, and the taller man immediately turned onto his side, pulling him into his chest.

“This doesn’t mean I’m awake.” Owen muttered, using his leg to pull up the covers. “My brain is telling me it’s too fucking early to be awake.” Axel smiled against his arm.

“Yeah, well, merry Christmas to you, too.”


End file.
